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Saturday, January 11, 2014

Wonderful glasses

There
are always surprises in life. Sometimes even the person who is doing something
is totally unaware about his good deeds. Unintentionally people do so many good
for others. I remember the story told by my teacher in the school. Teacher’s father was a carpenter and volunteer at Vanvashi Ashram
(wing of RSS which involves in social work at tribal area) at the district
place.

On
one particular day, he was building some crates for some material which was
supposed to be supplied to the orphanage school run by the Vanvashi Ashram at interior
tribal area known as Melghat in Maharashtra. After the hectic day, when he was on the way
at home, he reached into his shirt pocket to find his Spectacle
glasses, but they were gone. When he mentally replayed his earlier
actions, he realized what happened; the glasses had slipped out of his pocket
unnoticed and fallen into one of the crates, which he had nailed shut. His brand new glasses were heading for Melghat!

The
Great Depression was at its height and father had six children. He had spent 400 bucks for those glasses that
very morning. He was upset by the
thought of having to buy another pair.
"It's not fair," he told God as he drove home in
frustration. "I've been very
faithful in giving of my time and money to your work, and now this."

Several
months later, the Incharge of the
orphanage school was on holiday in the City.
He wanted to visit Vanvasshi centers that supported him in Melghat, so
he came to speak one Sunday at the center where teachers’ father's was volunteering. The Incharge began by thanking the people for
their faithfulness in supporting the school.
"But most of all," he said, "I must thank you for the glasses
you sent last year. You see, I lost my glasses.
I am staying in such interior area where it is difficult to get material for
day to day chore during monsoon, so imagine how can I get glasses. I was
desperate. Even if I had the money,
there was simply no way of replacing those glasses. Along with not being able
to see well, I experienced headaches every day, so my colleagues, lovely students
and I were much in prayer about
this. Then your crates arrived. When my
staff removed the covers, they found a pair of glasses lying on top.”

The Incharge
paused long enough to let his words sink in.
Then, still gripped with the wonder of it all, he continued:
"Folks, when I tried on the glasses, it was as though they had been
custom-made just for me! I want to thank
you for being a part of that."

The
people listened, happy for the miraculous glasses. But the Incharge surely must
have confused their Center with another, they thought. There were no glasses on their list of items
to be sent at Melghat.

But sitting quietly in the back, with tears
streaming down his face, an ordinary carpenter realized the Master Carpenter
had used him in an extraordinary way.